Friday, June 24, 2016

Goldgena Project - Introduction

The Goldgena Project is not just another Swiss watch brand, but an ambitious mission to create luxurious timepieces that carry total transparency of its origin.

The Goldgena Project was launched on 22 Mar 2016 in Switzerland with the goal of creating affordable mechanical watches with complete transparency regarding their origin and costs. The brand aims to shake up the ‘Swiss Made’ label and the traditional approach to distribution and marketing.

The Swiss Made label often mislead consumers, as most of the components are manufactured abroad. The Goldgena Team has decided to make their watches with complete transparency, and have thus created the TTO label; Total Transparency on Origin.

During the initial stages, Goldgena will be communicating and explaining the production cost of their watches. In addition, by selling directly to the end consumer they will be able to apply an unmatched modifier of 3.5 to the production price. The Goldgena Project is planning to foster community power by offering a commission of 10% to anyone who generates a sale. In addition, an application will allow potential customers to meet watch owners, so that they can see the product before buying. In September a crowd funding campaign will be launched for the market entry of its debut timepiece.

The Goldgena Project is run by a small watch design workshop called cosanova, based in Lausanne. Founded in 2005 by the designer Claudio D’Amore, this workshop has had the honor of working with around forty luxury watch brands, such as Tag Heuer, Parmigiani, Montblanc, Oris, Eberhard and Hautlence.

Born in Switzerland to Italian parents, in 2000 Claudio D’Amore (40) graduated from the ECAL (Lausanne Design School) with an HES degree in design. He then set off for London to work with Ross Lovegrove, the famous London-based designer, where he worked on the design of several watches for Tag Heuer (V4, Carrera Caliber 360, Golf Watch). Upon his return to Switzerland in 2005, he founded cosanova.